When it comes to the numbers, Fish & Richardson can't be beat. In 2014, for example, the firm handled 245 new intellectual property suits, according to legal analytics company Lex Machina, more than any other Am Law 200 firm. The firm also handled more cases at the International Trade Commission and was one of the most active firms in post-grant proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Sibling publication Corporate Counsel has put the firm in the No. 1 spot in its annual patent litigation survey, which is based on number of cases, for at least a dozen years.

But Fish's success is not just about numbers; it also wins. Victories include two high-stakes Federal Circuit patent cases for Apple Inc. and LG Electronics in which more than $172 million in damages was at risk in a battle with an Alcatel-Lucent SA subsidiary. Fish also won two big Hatch-Waxman patent cases for Allergan Inc., blocking four competitors from selling a generic version of a glaucoma drug that has $200 million in annual sales.

Significant Cases: Fish helped establish precedent in an administrative law decision at the PTO when it convinced the Federal Circuit that it has no jurisdiction to review the denial of an inter partes review proceeding. At the International Trade Commission, Fish successfully led a joint defense fighting a company that was seeking to exclude Fish client LG Electronics Inc. and 23 other companies from importing products that contained technology that it said infringed its patent. Even though the patent had already survived challenges, Fish convinced the ITC that none of the companies were guilty of infringement. What Clients Say: “They like to flex their creative muscle,” says Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc. chief IP counsel Joseph Green. Fish defended the CBOE against an infringement suit brought by International Securities Exchange LLC.